LOVE Saturdays

Yup, today was great!

We slept in this morning until about 9am... even the little cookie slept in! Homemade banana bread was on the menu for breakfast (I made it last night around 11pm for the very first time). It was pretty good... missing chocolate chips, an extra banana and some sort of nut (is it walnuts that you can put in it? I cant remember?...) Besides that, not too shabby for a first timer. Thanx to the encouragement from my girly friend saying "its not so hard" Thanx S, it sure is not!

We were going to go hit some Garage sales first thing this morning, but we woke up kinda late and wanted to do a few other things even more (like be lazy). We did some origami (do you DO origami or CREATE it? not sure about that one...) We made a puppy and a dinosaur. Was neat to see how the little cookie's hand eye precision had increased.

Next we were off to the berry field! Raspberries and Blueberries are the ones that were available to pick. These took a little longer than the strawberries we picked a few weeks ago, cuz ya really have to take a good look at each one. We picked 2 buckets of each! I love freezing them, then indulging in smoothies a little later. Mmmm SMOOTHIES...

 So into the freezer they went.

The next adventure we wanted to go on was a picnic at Qualicum's beach for some snorkelling. (wish I took a picture of the two of them with their heads in the water looking for treasures) It was probably the cutest thing EVER! I opted to not go as my ears are plugged from the last time... We packed some seriously amazing foods. There were chicken sandwiches on a cheese bun, cherries, oranges, cookies, blueberries and water of course as we were in the beautiful sun.

4pm came up quickly while playing in the water! Off to my mommas we went for dinner. There we ate a fresh lobster dinner! She even had chicken there for my younger sister (as she doesn't like lobster). Goodness she is spoiled! I love watching her put the live lobsters into the pot of boiling water. As kids we used to race them before they went inside... mean? cuel? Maybe... but it sure was fun when you had an active one! We played frisbee and caught up with my aunt who came from the Yukon on her motorcycle! Quite the adventure for her and her husband.

Then off home we had to go... And to sleep for tomorrow's busy day!

Camping in June

I stumbled on this picture this morning hiding in my camera. Its 100% us. We just finished cleaning up our campsite after 2 nights of sitting in front of a camp-fire and inventing new marshmallow treats. There are no pretty clothes that comes camping with us :)

Our little cookies bedroom

I am so proud of the creativity that has come out of me this summer.
At first I was soooo determined to paint our little girls room (at first she wanted pink, then decided on a different colour for each wall). I think the latter is the best idea ever! However, paint is fairly expensive especially to cover 4 different colours... so I came up with another idea.

She LOVES to draw and paint! Every time we have her (weekends) she colours up a beautiful piece of artwork and usually we store it away, or put it on the fridge (depending on the size of the paper... we have giant paper too). Now we are putting the giant drawings on her wall. We are going to cover her room in her artwork! So far we only have a few up, but it looks adorable already. She loves it too, she can admire her beautiful work.

This is the first drawing she did. We all draw together, its so much fun and amazing seeing her artwork skills grow.

For the second picture I could have taken a better picture... but too lazy now... lol


She is into butterflys right now, and it was super cheap to make then out of foam and fabric I found at the Dollar store!

Next was the door entrance, I wanted her room to be JUST hers. So together we put up her name and the pieces I made previously as a birthday surprise.

I found an old cork board at a garage sale for $1 that had previous kids drawing all over it... I just glued fabric to it to add colour... could have picked a different colour for sure but this one was free. Then drew large pink and purple poka-dots all over it and stuck butterflies on the boarder. She loved this too! Now immediately went to her box of treasures and thumb tacked pictures of our family.

 My last picture is just because I think it is sooo cute! She has selected ALL her teddies to sleep with her, (She never wanted to sleep with all of them before) But now she INSISTS. I love it!!!! There are double the amount of teddies at the foot of her bed too!use I think it is sooo cute!


 I still cant wait to paint her room, but that will have to wait a little bit... in the meantime we can all oggle her artwork. So proud!

Lazy days

These past few days that I have been sick have actually been kinda nice. My man and I are always go go go doing new different things. I think my body must have been exhausted, because I slept from Monday-Wednesday. Today is Thursday and I still have boogers... but its not so bad anymore...

I was kinda bored yesterday between naps so I went out with my 40% off coupon for Micheals and purchased clear stones to make colourful magnets. I will post pics later (if I remember) of how to do it. They are sooo freaking cute!

Yesterday we went swimming at Westwood lake. Oh goodness, it was sooo warm there! They also allow dogs! One of the very few places that allow our sweet little pup. So we will absolutly be going back there! Did a little swimming, my man did a little snorkeling then laid on the beach for a little snooze.



Today is not a running day just yet... I cant breath properly. Instead some light exercise inside followed by wii fit and a evening bike ride.

Just a little sick now...

Woo, today was soo much better!
No need for any medicine, just lots of hot water with lemon and ginseng. Yum.
I finished all Hero's TV shows. I am just sooooo happy Sylar is now a good guy!!!! Woot!!! But now I need the next TV shows to watch... its terribly boring being sick... Any ideas people? Possibly something that has MANY seasons?
Sylar being the good guy was the highlight of my day unfortunately...

Oh wait, no it wasn't... around 8pm my man asked me to come to Best Buy with him... My first time out in 2 days, yep, that was the highlight of my day for sure! Tomorrow I have decided I will not be sick any more. I have shinanigans to do. I want to start running again after taking... hum... too many days off...

Sick?

Its true, last night I was soo sick. I forgot for irritated I get when I'm sick...

Its a head cold, you know "booger nose, pressure in your head, plugged everything, upper teeth hurt" Except this nasty head cold had a few effects on the rest of my body, (sore muscles and joints).

I am one of those strange people that do not take medication unless absolutely necessary. Last night, the NightQuil came out. I might as well have been a child, flailing in bed to shake out the irritants, requesting so many different at home natural remedies. I also forgot how sweet my man is when it came to taking care of me. He stayed up until I fell asleep and in between the many times I woke up rubbing my back and playing with my hair. Our little pup never sleeps in our bed, but last night he wouldn't leave my side... which was sweet but irritating as well... I was rolling around every 10 min and I must have accidentally hit/kicked the pup a million times throughout the night.

This little cold of mine is due to an incredibly cute 1 year old that was here for 2 days... He has a runny nose the whole time. And common, he IS a baby, so of COURSE I had to play with him.Who the heck gets sick in the summertime anyways?!

I phoned up my mom inquiring how did she do it? How did she take care of 3 bloogery children and NEVER get sick???? Her response, "I just didn't have time!"

There are some good and bad there... being a mom your forced to be busy ALL THE TIME, but on the plus side you NEVER get sick. Not sure which one I want more right now (as I am still sick...)

Today I have slept many hours, finished a book, drank sooo much lemon ginseng tea, and have such a raw sore nose...

Vancouver friend visits!

Woo, my Vanc friend came over yesterday and we sure have been busy. I wanted to show her thee whole island in 2 sleeps, but then we decided maybe its better to just focus on a couple things... She got here yesterday afternoon and 4 of us attempted a hike up Mt. Benson, only to realise it is a couple hours up then a couple hours down... And my homemade dinner would be ready in 2 hours! So, we went part way and came back down. A scrump dinner was gobbled up followed by some Harry Potter, and a good ol' snooze. Today was just as busy. I woke up early and made many different crepes. There was strawberry, banana, bacon and sugar crepes. Oh my goodness soo good! To top off an amazing breaky I put a little hot chocolate in my coffee, made it just that much better! There was a sand castle competition that just finished on the next city so we popped in to check em out. It was my friends baby's first birthday party, so we headed to a big shindig at the beach ate a lot of food (was a potluck and BBQ) then off for some Kayaking on the lake just minutes from our house.

My Vanc friend S, kept telling me she couldn't believe my lifestyle and that this is what my man and I actually do on weekends.
At first I thought, "what its not much different then the average Joe" but now I think I understand... we have an amazing home, kayaks that we can hop on and have our choice if 4 different lakes each 10 min away, or to the ocean, we have snorkaling gear, a back yard, biking trails, mountains completely surrounding us and Sooo much more!
We have the option of going outside into the world and we are not forced to spend a dime (except for gas...)

Yup, we are pretty lucky here. I'm NEVER leaving!

Randoms...

While my love was fishing today I was curled up on the rocks with s blanket and a girl book. Just what I love!

My shmoops found this amazing fishing hat while on a hunt for camping gear...

Little fishing, little reading

What a great evening :)

5 Years of Love

I remember the day my man asked me to be his girl. It was 5 years ago yesterday.
We were at a beautiful area among smooth giant rocks in Nanoose bay. I was crying because my momma and I got into a fight (did not happen very often) and my Shmoops was consoling me. The sun was so warm it heated up the gentle breeze that flew through our hair and our fingers as we held hands.

He said, "do you officially want to be mine and I'll be yours?"

I cannot believe all the things we have been though! How did 5 years fly by so fast? We have been though jobs, careers, changes, school, buying a house, trying out new things everyday. Our faith has grown not only in God, but ourselves and each other (sometimes even more important then the first). We always make mistakes, but most importantly we learn from them. We never go to bed angry with each other and if I/He is ever secretly upset with one another we bring it up (even if it is after a few hours, it always comes up).

Yesterday we spent our anniversary kayaking to New Castle Island and hiked around it with a backpack filled with sushi and wine (never walked on the island before). Of course we brought along the pup. It was another amazing adventure. We played the game "did you think 5 years ago we would be where we are today?" Both of us thought similar things such as, we didn't think we would own a house, neither of us knew how happy we could be and how much we grew in such a short period of time. Then we thought what the next 5 years will be like, what we want and what need. Its going to be another amazing 5 years (ups, downs, the whole 9 yards).

I can say with a true heart that I am absolutely happy with my life. I have learned so many things in the last few years and believe there are so many more years to come in our happily relationship. That is not to say we don't get into arguments, of course we do, but the good outweighs the bad by a landslide. I think its the powerful communication that we have grown to love.

I love you Shmoops,
Cheers to another 5 years

A 6 year olds Birthday

Can you believe it? I sure cannot!
 
We didn't get her for her real birthday (its the suck) but absolutely deal-able... It happens in many families. Besides, as a child you get more presents and extra attention in separated families. Here is our little cookies family birthday party.

The day before it was pouring rain outside so we decided why not have a inside day filled with video games, pjs, colouring, board games, and snacks all day. It was sooooo much fun! This does not happen very often in our family. We always go out and get into shinnanigans. But that day was an inside day.

That night after the little cookie went to bed, we decorated the whole living room with streamers and balloons.The last couple days I was making foam bumble bees, butterflys, and flowers to fill up her bedroom. And that was the next step of the evening.

Right after decorating the living room, we snuck into her bedroom, and covered her walls with colors! We pasted all the crafts that I made to bring come colour to the bedroom. I drew some spots on her poster board (her fav colours) and made these butterflys. There are about 15 butterflys, 2 bumble bees, 2 flowers and MANY mini butterflys. I bought all the materials at a dollar store (cost me $6 to decorate her entire bedroom).

She woke up that morning, ran into our bedrooom shouting how beautiful her room looks and then ran into the living room gawking at the decorations. She jumped into our bed and gave both my shmoops and I big hugs thanking us for her beautiful bedroom and her favourite colours. Its moments like this that are so simple that make your heart just melt. Everything is worth it for the little shnook.

I made this and put it on her door. She loves her little bedroom she says, "this is all mine, but you and daddy can always play with my stuff too"

My man got huge pieces of paper from his last job that we just had laying around in the shed. I came up with this idea that instead of painting her room, every time she came over we would draw a picture of something she loves then tape it to the walls. We have 3 pictures now that she has drawn. Usually with myself or my shmoops.

We covered the ceiling in glow in the dark stars, planets, and outlined the ceiling in pink and purple hearts (that also glow in the dark) To me, this is a dream bedroom. A child's creative world. Nanu helped put up all the stars and hearts on her birthday in the afternoon with the help of my younger and older sisters.

 This is the first picture that our little cookie drew. I am soo proud of her! She is quite the little artist.

The giant piece of cake she chose out of her butterfly icecream cake. She is telling Falito that cake is not for little pups. Just for 6 year olds and adults.

Most of the pics of the actual birthday my shmoops has... so that will be skipped...
But we opened presents, ate cake, played with MANY toys (I cannot believe how many presents our family got her) then headed to her granny and grandpa's place for another present and snacks. It was such a great successful birthday day!

Saturday Morning

I cannot remember the last time this happened. Its pouring rain outside (that part is not uncommon) but we are not going outside at all. We are rocking out today in our pyjamas and playing video games on our Wii our friend gave us. The Wii is definitely the most kid friendly. We picked up cooking mama, and princess game on the sales rack. Now I am determined to find more kids games for super cheap. Its soo fun! It also came with Wii Fit. Cannot wait to start that one too. Going to be pretty fun!

6 years?!?!

Oh yes, we are gearing up for our cookies 6th birthday. How did time fly by so fast?! Unbelievable! Its going to be pink, purple and underwater theme.
Mostly just a family thing as her friends are where her mother lives. I cannot wait until we can have HUGE birthdays with kidlets running around in the backyard playing with water-balloons and asking if they can "do it again." Yup. Love all that kinda stuff!!!
It has been wonderful having so many younger brothers and sisters. And because I am so much older than them I get the opportunity to plan these parties and see their faces light up as the main attraction starts. (depending on their age its always changing) Oh well, one day we will have our own... Wish we could do it for our cookie every year :) Its just not time yet... Its coming though, I can feel it in my pinky finger :P

Mind reading

I caught myself expecting my man to read my mind today... we decided 5 years ago that he sucks at it and I have to be flat out with him when I expect/want something.

When he said "want to meet us? It's just past the parking lot"
I said "yup" (what I really meant was no, I cannot walk another step, I might cry)
When he offered to pick me up, after a few text messages, I said "no ill meet you there" (what I really meant was of course you should pick me up I've been walking all day and am cranky, and sore and do not want to inconvenience him and his friend)

How did girls live believing in their world that their men can/should be able to read their minds.

One crazy lady here.
So looks like I am walking past the parking lot... I so deserve it though... and there cannot be any complaints!

Can't wait to tell him I am a true crazy girl and how I tried AGAIN to have him read my mind. What was I thinking?

House hunting

Today was our first day searching for a place to live in Vancouver. I do not want to be a downer, but it sucked!
The first 2 places are unlivable for 3 people. Some of the rooms wouldn't even fit a double bed. I'm cranky! My feet are sore from walking an insane amount of blocks that no human should be subjected to walking... not going to lie, we got lost a couple times. After 2 places we started getting hungry and headed for some sushi. Just before I got in the door I was pooped on... good luck right? Sushi was ok... not sure I would go there again... Sushi I by the way. Then off to 2 more viewings. On the way we saw our first skunk walking along the side walk... so we did exactly what we were told to do. Walk the other way. Then off to our 3rd place. It was cute, barely a living room, but the bedrooms were HUGE! Then off to the 4th viewing. It was gross. Bars on the windows, old style house, males living upstairs... not what we want at all. We headed separate ways somewhere 20 min from downtown, and I thought for sure I knew how to get back after we separated. Turns out I didn't... a few more walking blocks and I found my way to my bus... I need to exercise more to not be sore from a day of walking... Now I'm at the ferry terminal an hour early just waiting, and listening to crazy people talk. I thought crazy people of Vancouver ended when I enter the terminal?

Changing the subject. One of my friends surprised me by booking a pedicure with her on the 20th. It's going to be sooo fun! I am one lucky chick!

Thoughts...

It just dawned on me that I am 23... I will be 23 when I graduate technically. Almost 24...
I always thought I would be married to my Shmoops by 23 (after all we have been together for 5 years), then babies at 24. I am sooo glad I am not having babies next year... I need to work, and live with my man for a year at LEAST before babies can come around. Being away is sooo difficult!

3rd 4th 5th

The next presents that I got. Holly spoiled!

This is a joke present, but I am honestly sooo happy he bought it! Its an egg holder for when we go camping! I hate that we always have to be so careful of our eggs. Not any more!!!This I have been asking for a year for. Also for camping, but can be used for functions such as my birthday, and wedding reception I am planning at the beach :) Very practical!
I have recently started running. This is like a runners dream. Well my dream, maybe I will be more motivated to run :) We will see.
This matches the apron. Its a joke between my shmoops and I. This summer was my very first not working/going to school (only a housewife). And every housewife must have mittens and an apron!

My Birthday!

This completes my housewife life for the next 6 weeks!

Kayaking

My shmoops and I wanted some alone time and he wanted to fish, so this is what happens when we compromise! What a beautiful evening :) I even caught a fish!
Of course we had to bring the pup along for the ride.

Birthday week

This year I have a whole week that my man spoils me and we do everything I want to do, and he has to wait on me at my every beckon. This is my birthday week. Every year he has received this amazing new tradition until this year... I was away for school... we just spent the day together, and watched a Canucks game and ate cake with a couple friends. Next year though, I have BIG plans! Wait. Scratch that. The following year I have BIG plans cuz then I won't be in school...

Anyways. This is my year. Completly spoiled. I received my first present today that I asked for all year. It's a Coleman camping stove! Cannot wait to use this one!

Only 2 more sleeps till my birthday. My favorite part about birthdays is getting the awkward sounding but hilarious singing "happy birthday" phone calls. If I could skip on presents from all my friends and just get the crazy songs from each person, I so would rather wish that!

Oh, Google+ is out for everyone to try. Go check it out! I would ditch fb in a second if everyone that I needed made the switch to Google+!

Painting

I decided I have enough money for 1 can of paint, so I did one wall in the living room. I picked out the colour by myself, and my shmoops has no idea I did this as he is at work. I cannot wait for him to see it! Next is the 3 side walls a completely diff colour, then little boo's room. Hmmm, looking at this wall, it is for sure need a second coat... I hate watching paint dry!

Out for a run

OMGooodness I have alot of practice to do before Sept...
I went for a run yesterday and I died at 2km... I am blaming the heat and lack of water... yes that's it.
One of my roomates that I will be living with is a runner so I thought it would be a great idea for us to go together, you know keep up the fitness level through school... I need to get up to 10km... I'll let ya know how that turns out. Any ideas how to run with a cell phone, water-bottle and a pup? One hand is designated just for the pup, one hand hold a cell and I'm thinking a water-bottle would be a good idea, since its summer and all... I need something comfy.

DIY non-toxic sprays

No I do not have hairy armpits, or unshaven legs. I just cant stand gross toxic smells.

Check out this site: http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/green-cleaning-spring-cleaning-460303

It is my fav right now. I tried them all!

Surprise!

Holly cow. Happy birthday to me from my momma!

She phoned me up last night at 10pm and told me she paid to have our carport enclosed. I could not believe what I was hearing on the other line. Is this true? Am I sleeping? Unbelievable! She said "you and your man deserve it."
So her friend came over this morning sure enough and starting hammering things out of the walls, and put up walls. I was in the backyard cleaning up the giant mess that hovered over our beautiful yard. It took all day and I still felt like I accomplished nothing... there were piles of strange things all over the place (I piled these things, where did they come from?). Then my man came home, and spent 1 hour cleaning the yard and it looked spotless. That's it. Yard work is not for me! I'm just little. Not meant to do hard labour...
Just before we finished I sold another tent! That adds up to a grand total of 5 cans of paint! I will be painting in no time now!
Now we are sitting inside, still flabbergasted that we almost have a garage just below us. Unbelievable. Too excited for words!
Time to heat up some home-made pizza leftovers and read my book. Another VERY satisfying day!

Tinkerbell theme

My birthday is in 7 sleeps! Huzzah for birthdays!

 

We are having a BBQ in our backyard... as long as I have enough time to clean everything up...
Things to clean up:

• Random drywall chuncks left from renovations
• Weedwack along the fence  
• Drop off old washer and dryer at recycling depot

On a completely different side note. I cannot wait for Google+ to be released to the general public (including me).

And changing the subject one more time, we ended a perfect Sunday with a strawberry and pina-colada belini and each of us with books sitting quietly in the living room.

Strawberries

We went to our first U-Pick on a farm today. Only strawberries are in season so far... well in a couple weeks blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries will be ready too! We went to Walmart to buy 4 pink buckets each cost $1, then off to the farm we went.

It is only a 25 min drive from our house. It was pure sun, so everyone had hats and sunglasses :)

Our little cookie and my man picking strawberries. N thought this was the coolest thing in the whole world! She picked them exactly as we were shown too, very gently little soul she is.

 We couldn't believe how quick it was to pick them!

 Cookie showing me how many strawberries she picked.

After we went home to make strawberry and banana smoothies. Goodness they were good!
We will absolutely be going back after we are finished these and will be filling our freezer with all this amazing fruit!
I LOVE this island! Why would anyone want to move? Silly people who cannot appreciate what they have until its gone. That's who!

Caramel popcorn

homemade of course!

One glance from my man and his little cookie and it sure didn't last long!
This is a favorite in our house!
From allrecipes.com

Flying Kites

Garage sales, then to the beach to fly kites, then had my momma over for dinner that I made! Great Day!

Todays meal was pasta and chicken with homemade alfredo sauc. Thanks to allrecipes.com !!!
Also added pics to a couple prev blog posts that I couldn't add before...

Canada Day

Happy Canada Day everyone!

We bought our first bunk bed and cannot believe we have ever lived without it! It is the best thing ever! Double on the bottom for guests and single on the top for our little cookie. Yup, just perfect.
Then we were off to pick up the little one and passed 2 motorcycle accidents... prayers are being thrown out to their families.... what a horrible thing to go through. Traffic of course was just horrific and took us an extra hour to get through it, so we were an hour late... but we sure cannot control that...

Then off to fireworks. My fav! They coordinated the music to the fireworks so well. We only got home at 11:30 all of us were sooooo tired after driving all day.